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Barbara O’Connor: “She’s a local author who has written about class in her books before. Her most recent book is called 'Wish' and in that book she deals with the break-up of the family and one of the children has to go live with another family member. One of the parents is in jail. It’s a timeless book,” says Cherrix. “It has timeless issues of friendship and loyalty, but at the same time provides a look at contemporary challenges in our society that kids are having to overcome.”

Stephanie Perkins: Cherrix admits she hasn’t made it through "There’s Someone Inside Your House." She said it’s too scary for her to read all at once, so she’s spacing out the chapters. “She normally writes YA romances. She calls them YA love stories, but she changed it up in this recent book to write horror.”

"Refugee" by Alan Gratz(Photo: Courtesy photo)

Alan Gratz: “He wrote a New York Times bestseller called 'Refugee,'" says Cherrix. “He writes about the refugee crisis in three time periods and shows how this is not a new problem. This is an issue that we’re continuing to struggle with. I think we tend to think it’s something new, but it’s not. It just looks new to every generation.”

"Between Two Skies" by Joanne O'Sullivan(Photo: Courtesy photo)

Joanne O’Sullivan: “Her book is 'Between Two Skies.' She writes about Hurricane Katrina. She writes about class, too, in that book,” says Cherrix. “There’s a whole generation of kids who don’t remember Hurricane Katrina, and she brings it all to life for them about how those kids had to be of two worlds after the storm and how that really goes to the issues of identity and selfhood.”

Cherrix has her own experience with hurricanes and has been through six of them. Her interest led her to create her own entry into the YA market with her book "Eye of the Storm," which was published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in April 2017. Cherrix, an Asheville native, previously worked for the publisher in Boston and continues to serve as a consulting editor. She wrote the book as part of the publisher’s “Scientists in the Field” series. The book focuses on how NASA scientists are using repurposed military drones to fly over hurricanes to gain more information about how a storm intensifies.

She’s now working on a new book, "Backyard Bears: Conservation, Habitat Changes and the Rise of Urban Wildlife." It’s due out in October and will also be part of the “Scientists in the Field” series.

When it comes to trends in YA books, Cherrix is witnessing what she calls a “long overdue attention to diversity across the board. Race, gender and class — that’s a big part of it too."

"Especially since the election last year, there is a huge uptick in books about equality for everyone, especially women," she said. "There are lots of children’s books about resistance, equal rights, young people’s guides to protesting and biographies of historic change makers, and diversity across the spectrum — gay rights, trans rights, and women’s issues and more attention to class and how that underpins a lot of problems in our society. Publishers are making a concentrated effort to help parents address these issues with their kids in fiction and nonfiction.”

She details what she calls one of the most important books of the year, "The Hate U Give," by debut novelist Angie Thomas. It’s about a young African-American girl and her friend who get pulled over by a cop and her friend gets shot.

“It’s the must-read of the year,” says Cherrix. “It is really important. When I hand sell that book to a young adult or their parents, I suggest they read 'The Hate U Give,' and 'Between the World and Me' by Ta-Nehisi Coates together. It’s about race in America. I think that book is a way for families to talk about race.”

“It’s not that every single book is an issue novel,” she continues. “Not every publisher is on a mission, but there is particular attention being paid to issues that are increasingly unavoidable in the news."